I've finally found a car I don't like

Mar 17, 2007

Here is the car in question. It’s a Pontiac G6 sedan, with (allegedly) 169 bhp (126 kilowatts if you’re living in the real world), four doors, and not much else to speak of. No iPod integration - not even a line-in jack. Squealy brakes. Shoddy, cheap plastic trim. A clunky four-speed gearbox. Wheezy air conditioning.

And the engine. There are good four-cylinder engines in this world, but this is not one of them. When you’re cruising, it sounds like a mixmaster. Press the accelerator, and it sounds like a mixmaster having a panic attack. But more importantly, when you press the accelerator while travelling at highway speeds, it doesn’t bloody do anything. You cannot safely overtake in this car, because it’s impossible to go faster than the car in front of you. I had to switch off the air-con to get up a couple of hills today.

Is it any wonder that American car manufacturers are losing to Toyota, Nissan and Honda?